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igL^ THE RELATIONS 



BETWEEN 



RELIGION AND ACADEMIC EDUCATION: 



AN ADDRESS 



AT 



THE AUTHOR'S INAUGURATION 

AS 

PRESIDENT OF MIAMI UNIVERSITY, 

OHIO. 

AUGUST 13th, 1845. 



BY W. d'^-MAO. MA^TER. 






PRINTED FOE, THE UNIVERSITY. 
1845. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 



Gentlemei^ of the Board 

OF Trustees and Fellow-Citizens : 

There is not in the history of this great Commonwealth 
.a prouder page, than that which records the fact, that there was 
laid down in the fundamental law of the land, — the Ordinance 
of Congress of 1787, — while, as yet it was not a state, — and was 
incorporated in her constitution at her first organization as a 
state, the principle, that "Religion, morality and knowledge 
being essentially necessary to the ends for which states are 
established, schools and means of education shall forever be 
encouraged." It was in conformity to this principle, that the 
Legislature, at an early period of the Commonwealth, laid the 
foundations of this University. 

There are few institutions in which there ought to be felt by 
a people an interest deeper and more earnest, than in a University 
established by a great state, and endowed by the public munifi- 
cence, for the education of her own sons and of such others as 
may resort to it. The acceptance of an appointment to preside 
over the administration of such an institution imposes on him 
who is called to this position, the obligation to recognize and 



respond to the just clainij which its immediate governors, and, 
through them, the community have, to know what are the 
views that will guide him in the discharge of his trust. That 
you may be the better enabled to judge, how far the course 
which, in conducting this institution, so far as this depends on 
me, 1 shall think it my duty to pursue, will meet your expecta- 
tions, I proceed to offer, with as much clearness as I am able, 
though necessarily only in the imperfect outline to which the 
shortness of the time confines me, some general thoughts, — on 
the object of academical education, — and — on the instrument 
by which this object is to be accomplished. 

I. The Object of Academical Education. 

This is two-fold: — the development and discipline of the 
minds of those who are subjected to it: — and their instruction 
in the elements of the various departments of liberal learning. 

The first of these is that which is the primary object, and of 
chief importance : the other is subordinate and subsidiary. We 
need not, however, anxiously distinguish between these objects, 
as practically they are inseparable. For, on the one hand, the 
proper development and culture of man's rational nature can 
take place only on the condition and by means of that instruc- 
tion, which lays down the elements of science in scientific 
form in the mind of the student, as the foundation-stones on 
which he is to rear up the superstructure of his future knowl- 
edge; and, on the other hand, such a method of instruction 
cannot be pursued, without at the same time effecting the mental 
development and discipline which are sought. 

Every true system of education must be relative to the nature, 
the relations, the duties, and the destinies of man, the subject of 
this education. To the devising, or the conducting of such a 
system of education, a philosophical analysis of the mind itself, 
and a comprehensive and true view of its various powers and 
susceptibilities, as these exist universally in our common nature, 
and of the peculiar modifications under which they appear in 
the diversities of genius and character found among men of 
different times, different nations, and different conditions, would 



be of great advantage. To attempt such an analysis and 
discussionj however, even if I did not feel myself insufficient to 
satisfy in any adequate manner a subject at once of so large 
scope and so full of difficulty, would not comport with my 
present purpose. I propose to confine myself on this head to 
the brief statement and illustration of a single point ; namely, 
That the object of education, while it is the development and 
culture of the whole man, in all his powers and susceptibilities, 
is the development and culture of these powers and susceptibili- 
ties, with a just reference to the relations which all the other 
parts of his constitution bear to that in man, which is the 
highest element^ the governing "power ^ in his nature ; and to 
that^ without him, which is the great end of his being. 

That the Religious^ or Moral, nature of man holds in his 
constitution the place of supremacy over all else within him ; 
and that the Religious or Moral end of man,— namely, the 
service and fruition of God, — is his highest and ultimiate end, 
•are principles well enough understood and clearly enough recog- 
nized, however they may be little acted on, or acted on not at all. 

I do not think that this needs for its establishment a long and 
elaborate argument. The moral nature of man is that which 
connects him with heaven, proclaims him the offspring of God, 
constitutes him the subject of the Divine government, a being 
Under law to the Majesty in the heavens, and designates him an 
heir, beyond this life, of an eternal destiny in the world to come. 
It^is the moral relations of man to God, and the possession of 
that moral nature which makes him capable of sustaining 
these relations, that form his highest distinction in com- 
parison with the lower orders of the creation. It is these 
alone that clearly and unequivocally separate him from the 
downward-prone and brute tribes around him, that, grovelling 
upon the earth, are incapable of elevating themselves to God. 
It is at the most doubtful, whether there be a single faculty 
merely intellectual, or one susceptibility not involving any 
moral element, possessed by man, which he does not share in 
common with the brute. His moral nature, connecting him 
with God, and making him capable of sustaining the moral 
relations he does to God, is that which constitutes the broad 



generic distinction between him and these lower creatures; 
places him undoubtedly in another and immeasurably higher 
order of being ; invests him, at once, with a character of lofty 
excellence and of dread responsibility, stamps his actions with 
a momentous importance, and imparts to the question of his 
destiny an awful interest. To that moral nature, which thus 
exalts him above all that is on earth, belongs the place of 
supremacy. It is not more obvious that the true economy of 
the constitution of man requires that his physical faculties be in 
subordination to his rational, than that physical and rational, 
both alike, with all his other faculties of whatsoever kind, be 
under the dominion of his moral nature. His other faculties, 
physical and mental, exist but as the means by which his moral 
nature exercises its appropriate functions; and, attaining its 
own proper development and perfection, goes forward to the 
achievement of the great end of human existence. That the 
faculties and principles, wbi€h are called into exercise in the 
pursuit of those objects which engross the masses of mankind, 
are the highest faculties and principles of human nature, or 
that the acquisition and enjoyment of these objects are the 
highest end of man, no one rejflecting rationally with himself 
can think. Not science even is to be so pursued, as if its pursuit 
were the highest glory, its enjoyments the highest end of man. 
Especially is this true of science, as too commonly science is 
understood and pursued. Chiefly engrossed with that which 
is material, and, whatever be its subject, in its whole spirit of the 
earth earthy, never looking beyond, nor above, to aught of 
loftier aim, holier, more Divine, it neither engages the highest 
principles of man's nature, nor answers the most importunate 
demands of his being. That the faculties of man's rational 
nature may have their appropriate exercise, there are higher 
objects that must engage them, than any which science, so 
understood, has to present. That the desires of man may be 
satisfied, there is a deeper want to be met, than any of which 
aught that is earthly can be the supply. There is an end nobler 
than any which this world has to propose, that he must achieve, 
in order that he may fulfil his destiny and accomplish the end 
for which he was made. So reason teaches. There is no 



rational account of the nature of man, that does not take into 
view his relations to God ; and which does not magnify above 
all else in him that moral nature, which makes him capable of 
sustaining these relations. There is no rational account of the 
design of his being, which does not place his ultimate and 
hiofhest end in the service and fruition of God. And there is 
no rational account of either his nature, or the end of his being, 
which does not comprehend the consideration of another and a 
higher state, in which his nature shall find scope for its develop- 
ment, and his being opportunity to attain to its destiny. 

Upon the darkness in which the fall has enveloped the 
question of a future state, and the moral relations and desti- 
nies of maUy in this world and in the world to come, the gos- 
pel has shed light from heaven. The views which it reveals, 
it is necessary to take in, in order that we may comprehend 
the problem of man's being ; and that, comprehending this, 
we may address ourselves with an intelligent discernment, in 
our plans of education, to the true development of his nature 
necessary to the perfection of his being, and to the training 
that may fit him to attain the end for which he was created. 

Education is not then, as too often it is conceived to be, a 
preparation for fulfilling the ofiices of that life^ which, to the 
reproach of man, is the life of the masses of the race. It is 
not instruction in the art of multiplying the means of physical 
gratification, that, to the uttermost limit to which, by the sever- 
est taxing of his invention, and the most unsparing urging of 
his powers of exertion, he can by any possibility attain, he 
may be the best fed, best clad, best housed, and best pampered 
animal ; or of increasing the productiveness of capital and 
labor, and the accumulation of wealth ; or of scrambling suc- 
cessfully in the arena of a low political strife for the distinc- 
tions and the emoluments of ofiice, which too many attain only 
to abuse, and fill only to bring, by their incompetency, or their 
corruption, or by both, detriment to the public interests, and to 
leave, in their blundering and dishonest actings, the memori- 
als of their own disgrace. Education has a loftier aim, a 
higher and a holier mission, — even the true development and 
culture of man's nature, the equable improvement of all his 



8 ' . 

powers and susceptibilities, with a just reference to the rela- 
tions which these bear to each other, that he may attain to the 
perfection of his nature ; and the training of the whole man 
with a view to all the conditions of his being, that he may be 
prepared to fulfil well his duties in this life, and to accomplish 
his destiny, as a rational, moral, and immortal being, under 
law to God, and the heir of an unending existence in the 
world to come. 

A system of education conducted with a just reference to 
these views of the nature and destiny of man, Avill, by all the 
paths of learning, under the lights alike of nature and of reve- 
lation, lead him to God, the Maker and the Lord of all. 

Through the works of the creation, it will reveal to him the 
invisible things of God, his eternal power and Godhead. In- 
stead of resting in obscure and misty, and unmeaning dis- 
course about '• generations," and " developments," and " laws 
of nature," and " principles of order," and " forces," and " pow- 
ers," it brings him to the living God^ the intelligent and effi- 
cient cause of all things. It furnishes thus to the student of 
the Divine works, an explanation of the existence and origin 
of the things that are seen, which is adequate, and which 
alone can satisfy the mind of an inquirer imbued with the 
true scientific spirit, and afford to his researches a terminus 
where he may rest. In the constitution and course of nature, 
and by the Scriptures, through the various fields of mental 
and moral, as well as physical science, it makes him acquaint- 
ed with the attributes of Jehovah ; with the mighty and won- 
derful Avorks of the great Creator ; with the relations of man 
to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe ; with the principles of 
God's moral government, according to which he deals with 
individual man and conducts the affairs of the nations ; and 
with the grand scheme of redeeming mercy in Jesus Christ, 
for the salvation of a lost world and the reclaiming of it to 
God, Avhich the Gospel reveals. Affording to him, in these 
things, objects at once of surpassing greatness and of the deep- 
est interest, adequate to call into full exercise his highest powers 
of intellection, and the best principles of his heart, it gives to 
him compass of mind, reach of thought, elevation of senti- 



mentj the power of large and liberal intellectual comprehen- 
sion, unfolds and cultivates his moral principles, and effects 
the highest and most perfect development of his whole intel- 
lectual and moral nature. It is only when acting under the 
relations in which he stands to God and in obedience to the 
obligations which these relations impose, that his nature can 
find its proper development, his faculties their appropriate ex- 
ercise, and his heart its adequate and satisfying happiness. 

But not even this perfecting of his own nature and attain- 
ment of his own happiness are the ultimate and highest end 
of man. Man is not u being autoteles^ in himself complete, 
and unto himself sufficient, possessing irrespective of any oth- 
er being his own intrinsic value, and having himself as the 
end of his own existence. By the very law of his being, as a 
creature of God, he is dependent on God. This relation of 
dependence necessarily enters into, and is essential to his very 
nature, that he may be what he is, and -not *a being of another 
order. Deriving his being and all things from God, the end 
of his existence is, that he may render back to God, in whom 
he lives and moves, and has his being, and of whom and 
through whom and to whom are all things, the service of those 
faculties of which He is the author. This, then, is the lofty 
aim, the high and holy end of all true education; — that the 
whole rational and moral nature of man obtaining its own 
proper development and perfection, his understanding may as- 
cend to God, apprehend his being, his attributes, his character 
his relations to, and his counsels toward men ; and that the 
affections of his heart, following his understanding, may go 
up to God, expand upon him, embrace him, and saying ; This 
God is our God forever and ever^ he may render to God the 
homage of his soul and the service of his redeemed and re- 
generated nature. 

The religious nature of man, is that in reference to which 
his whole, development and training must take place. A 
training upon any other principle would be — not education — 
but a perversion and distortion of man's constitution, a force 
put upon his nature, to make him what the Creator never 
made him, and never designed that he should be made, — a 
2 



10 

monster, — a being that with the faculties and attributes of 
man, yet is not man, and cannot attain the ends of man. 

While, doubtless, institutions and plans of education adopt- 
ed from abroad would require modification to adapt them to 
our peculiar condition and circumstances, it were wise for us 
to derive, upon this subject, instruction from the experience of 
older nations. In those countries of Europe, where are estab- 
lished the best systems of education, a course of religious in- 
struction forms a constituent part of the course of training in 
every school. This is so in Scotland, famed for its wise pro- 
visions in this regard. The same is the case in Prussia, which 
possesses, what at least, so far as concerns the general princi- 
ple on which it is based, and in many respects, the results ob- 
tained, appears to be the best system of education enjoyed by 
any country in the world. " The first vocation of every 
school," says the laAV of 1819, which contains a digest of the 
legal provisions by which the system of public instruction in 
that country is established, ^^ the first vocation of every school 
is to train up the young in such a manner, as to implant in 
their minds a knowledge of the relations of man to God, and 
at the same time to excite both the will and the strength to 
govern their lives after the spirit and precepts of Christianity. 
Schools must early train youth to piety ; and therefore must 
strive to second and complete the early instruction of pa- 
rents." Accordingly in the regulations which the law pre- 
scribes for the direction of the schools of different grades, it 
lays down in the foreground of every scheme of studies, as 
the leading object of every school, " First, Religions instruc- 
tion^ as a means of forming the 'moral character according to 
the positive truths of Christianity. '^'^ Such, too, was the basis 
of the system of education established for both their colleges 
and their inferior schools, by the early fathers of our own 
country. A discussion of the subject has come up in our own 
times, chiefly, indeed, in relation to the common schools ; but 
the principle involved in which is equally applicable to all ed- 
ucational institutions of whatever grade ; which has aAvaken- 
ed in the public mind a deep and intense interest. We will 
not allow ourselves to doubt, that, amid a good deal of jargon 



11 

of a contrary tenorj the voice of the true people of our land is 
still, that the system of education in our schools, superior and 
subordinate, ought to be based upon religious instruction ; and 
that thus the voice of the people is in unison with the voice 
of wisdom, in declaring that the moral nature of man is the 
superior part of his nature, in reference to which his whole 
development and culture must take place, in order to the per- 
fection of his nature, and that the ultimate end of education 
is the conducting of man to that which is the highest dignity 
of his nature and the chief end of his being, — to fear God and 
keep his commandments, — Avhich the word of inspiration af- 
firms to be '^ the whole of man.*' 

11. The Instrument by which this object is to be 
accomplished. 

To understand this, we must comprehend the true nature of 
education, and of its subject, — man. That formation of the hu- 
man mind, which it is the object of education to effect/is not like 
the work of the smith's hammer upon the iron, fashioning it 
according to his will, or that of the chisel of the statuary upon 
the marble, modelling it into the forms of life, and strength, and 
grace. It is not effected by the application of forces ab extra, 
acting mechanically upon the subject. It takes place, not by 
accretion from without, but by development from within. It 
is the out-bringing of that in man, which is innate and connat- 
ural to him, — the unfolding, strengthening, and perfecting of 
the faculties and principles of his nature. This is accomplish- 
ed by exciting and calling forth these faculties and principles 
into their appropriate exercise, upon their appropriate objects. 
It resembles the chemical processes of our physical constitu- 
tion, by which nutrition and growth take place. The means, by 
which this is effected, is science. This is the pabulum animi, 
— the food of the soul, — by which its life is sustained, its facul- 
ties find their fitting objects, its principles are stimulated into 
their appropriate exercise, and its development, growth and 
perfection are attained. 

If it be true that education, that it may be education, and not 



a perversion and distortion of man's nature, and a defeating of 
the end of his being, must be conducted with a view to the 
rehgious principle,'as that in reference to which the whole de- 
velopment and training must take place, then the instrument of 
education must, in this respect, be adapted to the work which 
it is to accomplish. This instrument must be a science so 
framed, that there shall be in it a clear apprehension and a dis- 
tinct recognition of the relations which all the particular scien- 
ces bear to Religion ; and which, being thus a science conform- 
able to the truth and reality of things, is fitted to be the instru- 
ment of a true and real education. Religion, like every other 
subject of knowledge, is susceptible of being brought into the 
circle of the sciences, and treated in scientific form. That the 
great doctrines of Natural Theology constitute, as truly as any 
branch of physics, or of natural philosophy, a science, like 
these, resting upon a strict and rigorous induction, has been 
shown Avith great force and conclusiveness of argument by 
Lord Brougham, in his admirable Discourse of that subject. — 
By a precisely similar course of argument, may it be "shown, 
that, in like manner, the great body of religious truth contained 
in the Scriptures, — the Theology of the Bible, — is a strictly in- 
ductive science. Among the various sciences, this great subject 
of Religion, Natural and Revealed, holds the chief place. It 
is that, in reference to which the ultimate scope of all the other 
sciences is to be contemplated;^ — the science of sciences, to 
which they all ascend, and in which they all meet ; the com- 
prehending bond, which gives to them all, unity of design, 
which discloses their common end; — the terminating science; 
— as Bacon finely expresses it, ^Hhe haven and Sabbath of all 
man's contemplations." 

To exhibit the various relations between this Divine philoso- 
phy and the different branches of the other sciences, is far too 
large a work to be accomplished here. A few slight and im- 
perfect hints upon some parts of the subject, sufficient for the 
illustration of my general idea, is all that can be now at- 
tempted. 

To begin with the fundamental principles of all scientific 
inquiry, — that primary philosophy, which lies at the founda- 



13 

tion ofj and is common to all the particular sciences ;— the con- 
nexion between this and Religion, is neither obscure nor unim- 
portant. Take a single example. The doctrine of cause and 
efFectj — what intelligible and satisfactory account of this can 
be given, which does not resolve it into the great fundamental 
doctrine of all religion, — the doctrine of the being and attributes 
of God? The hypothesis, essentially atheistic, though cer- 
tially not so designed by all who have advocated it, which 
makes the relation of cause and effect identical with that of 
mere stated antecedence and sequence, is clearly in contradic- 
tion to the testimony of our own consciousness, and that of 
the race. Beyond the fact of this mere stated conjunction of 
events, the human mind seeks and importunately demands 
something more to account for the origin of things. Felix qui 
CAusAs rerum cognoscere will ahvays be, as it always has been 
the feeling of man. It is the necessary feeling of the human 
mind. Not a whit more satisfactorily is this demand for an ef- 
ficient producing cause of the things that exist answered by 
the common, vague and indefinite mode in which physical cau- 
ses are generally spoken of, especially by writers on natural sci- 
ence. The existence of the world and all things in it, is ade- 
quately accounted for, only by the doctrine of a living and 
intelligent, an all- wise, and omnipotent God, whose presence 
pervades the universe ; whose power has created and upholds 
all things ; whose agency penetrates every atom of the material 
and touches every spring of life in the mental world, establishes 
over both the laws under which they exist and act, and main- 
tains these laws in their operation ; who is himself the great 
First Cause; as, so far as physical nature at least is concernedy 
he is the only true and efficient cause of all things. Thus, do 
sound philosophy and true religion concur in reaching the same 
conclusion: or rather, the doctrine of philosophy resolves itself 
into that of religion. 

Ethics^ — ^the science of Morals^ — how intimate are the rela- 
tions between this and the great doctrines of Natural and Re- 
vealed Religion! I know, indeed, that there is prevalent 
among us an ethics, gendered of the spirit of atheism upon the 
fogs of earth, which claims to place the great subject of human 



14 

duty, at least so far as this exists between man and man, upon 
other grounds than those of Rehgion ; and teaches that there 
may be virtue^ where God is not known and his law is disre- 
^ garded and set at nought. I confess myself unable to find in 
this theory any explication of the principles of morals. Can 
there be virtue where there is no recog?iition of obligation, and 
710 acting under a sense of obligation? Certainly not. Well, 
can there be obligatioUj w^here there is 7?o laio to create it? It 
is impossible. But on the theory that puts all consideration of 
God out of the account, what is the law, that commands the 
duty of man to man? The public opinion of the times and the 
community, in the midst of which he happens to live? Or the 
promptings of his OAvn nature? his own feelings? Are any of 
these the law of duty^? Can there be a law where there is not 
a lawgiver, who has authority to impose law? But who is the 
lawgiver in this case? The public? His fellow-creatures? — 
Are they his god? Or is he a god to himself? — The two great, 
leading questions of ethical philosophy; — the rule of duty^ 
and the ground of moral obligation, — how can either of them 
be satisfied, on this theory of a virtue which is irrespective of 
God and of the relations of man to God? I confess myself, too, 
unable to understand the nature, or the mode of acting, of that 
conscience, which, without any recognition of the law of God, 
or their own relations to God, is said to carry men to virtue by 
the impulse of a blind instinct, like that which carries the new- 
born litter of the kennel to the dugs of the dam ; until in pro- 
cess of days, the young canine philosophers get their eyes open, 
and thenceforward go by an intelligent discernment to the 
source whence they draw their nutriment. Nor can the 
figurative declaration of the Apostle, tliat the Gentiles are a 
law unto themselves, be wrested to mean, that the promptings 
of men's own minds, in view of their own nature and their re- 
lations to their fellow-men as such, irrespective of any higher 
power, are literally of the nature of a law commanding obedi- 
ence. The questions already suggested arise. Even if there 
were such clearness and truthfulness in these promptings of 
conscience, as to make them a practicable and adequate rule ; 
— Whence the authority im^posing this laio 7 Who is the law- 



15 

giver 7 Is there any recognition of his authority^ or even of 
his being 7 And if not, is there any virtue in conduct not in- 
fluenced by any respect to a legitimate authority 7 If this be 
virtue, why, then, let us at least understand its nature, and esti- 
mate it at its true worth. A morality without religious origin, 
sanction, or aim, — what is its value? what its significancy? 

Such is not the nature of conscience ; and such is not the 
true theory of morals. Conscience is not a rule of duty ; but 
a faculty, whose office it is to interpret the rule of duty imposed 
by competent authority, and in the name and by the authority 
of the lawgiver, to enforce obedience. The moral nature of 
man, by a law as invarible and necessary as that by which 
iron is attracted to the loadstone, when made free from the 
bondage of sin, elevates itself to God, his Maker and his Lord, 
and binds him to the throne of the Most High. Even in 
his apostacy from God, still he is seen, though it be but as a 
blind man in the dark, groping his way to discover the footsteps 
of Jehovah, and feeling after God, if haply he may find him. 
The very superstitions of Paganism and other forms of false 
religion, existing amongst even the most abject and degraded 
tribes, as well as the piety of the Christian regenerated by the 
Spirit of God, and rejoicing in the light that has revealed 
heaven to earth, and brought benighted earth again into com- 
munion with heaven, demonstrate how essential is the religious 
principle to man's very nature. It is the apprehension of his 
relations to the great King, eternal, immortal, invisible, the on- 
ly wise God, that reveals to man in His loill a laio^ that has 
power to command him, and discovers in these relations the 
ground of an obligation^ that has authority to bind him to 
obedience. This is intelligible. My understanding apprehends 
the reason of such a law : my conscience feels its obligation. 
It is an explanation of the theory of morals that satisfies my 
inquiries. It is intelligible. And so does the true theory of 
ethics resolve itself into the doctrine of the religious relations 
and obligations of man to God, the Lord of all. 

Political Science: — As the application of the mathematics to 
physics is sometimes called the mixed mthematics^ so may 
political science be designated as a branch of Mixed Ethics. 



16 

Rightly understood, political science is but the application of 
the great principles of morals to the constitution and adminis- 
tration of the State. 

Too long and too generally, indeed, have mistaken ideas pre- 
vailed, concerning the nature, origin, constitution and ends of the 
State. " I am the State," was the declaration, not less absurd 
than arrogant, put into the mouth of Louis the Fourteenth, of 
France, when a boy, to be uttered to his Parliament. This ex- 
presses the idea of all absolute theories of government. The 
State is a great organized vassalage that exists for the service 
of those, whether one or more, who hold the political power.— 
Scarcely at all more worthy, or more true, are the ideas that 
seem extensively to prevail in our own times and in our own 
country. The State is regarded as a corporation^ having no 
higher origin than a compact, express or implied, real or imag- 
inary, among the corporators, no higher law than the will of a 
majority of its members, and no higher end than the merely 
secular well-being of its citizens. Such is not the true idea of 
the State. The State is, in its origin, its constitutioUj and its 
ends, essentially a moral institution. " Civil society, together 
with its order," says a living writer of our own country, " has 
its foundation in the natural constitution of man, and his exter- 
nal relationships in life, instituted by the Creator and Ruler of 
the world, immediately for the good of man and ultimately for 
the Divine glory."* " Civil government is the ordinance of 
God, founded in the moral law of our social nature, the princi- 
ples of which law are the standard of its actual constitution 
and administration."t '^ The principles of the moral law of 
nature, and those of the law revealed in the Scriptures of truth 
are fundamentally the same : and the moral qualifications of 
civil society and its order required by the law of nature are rad- 
ically identical with those required in the Scripture revelation. 
It is the bounden duty of civil society, according to the light 
furnished it by the Bible revelation, in a progressive course of 
moral and religious reformation upon Bible principles, to en- 

* Report on the doctrine of Civil Government, by Gilbert McMaster, D. D. 1835, 
t Letters on Civil Government, by the same, 1832. 



17 

deavour the improvement of its institutions, thereby fitting 
them to attain the ends of the social organization. Though 
civil society and its govermental institutions be not founded in 
grace, yet it is the duty of Christians to endeavour to bring 
over States the influence of the grace of the gospel, and to per- 
suade such states to put themselves in subordination to Imman- 
uel, for the protection and furtherance of the interests of 
religion and liberty."* 

Such is the view of the origin, constitution, and ends of the 
state, and of the ground of obligation to political obedience, 
sustained by the highest of all authority. Let every soul he 
subject to the higher powers : for the poioers that be are or- 
dained of God. Whosoever^ therefore, resisteth the power, 
resisteth the ordinance of God : for he is the minister of God 
to thee for good, — a revenger to execute wrath upon him that 
doeth evil. Wherefore, ye must 7ieeds be subject, not only for 
wrath, but also, for conscience sake. 

It is necessary to place the State upon this high religious 
ground, as the ordinance of God ; in order, while all occasion 
for every feeling of degradation in subjection is taken away, 
and the spirit of a truly rational and manly independence in 
the individual is cherished, to find a ground of authority for 
its constitution and a sanction for its laws, that can bind the 
consciences of men. Where else can such ground of authori- 
ty, or such sanction be found ? The Institutes of Justinian 
lay down, at the opening of that work, as the fundamental 
principle of laws the slavish maxim ; Quod principi placuit, 
legis hahet vigorem. Not a whit better is the popular maxim 
current among ourselves ; That lohatever is the pleasure of 
the people has the force of law. The one maxim is just as 
servile in spirit, and just as untrue in principle, as the other. 
Indeed, slavish as the maxim which I have quoted from the 
Justinian institutes appears, it is expressly placed upon the 
ground of the concession of sovereignty and power from the 
people to the Emperor, and so at last is resolved into that of the 



■ Report, &c. 

3 



18 

absolute and despotic will of the people. " "Wliatever is the 
pleasure of the Prince has the force of law ; for the people, by 
the lex regia^ which was enacted in relation to the empire, con- 
ceded to him their whole power. Wherefore whatever the 
Emperor ordains, by rescript, decree, or edict, stands for law." 
'^ Q.uod principi placuit legis habet vigorem : cum lege regia, 
quid de ejus imperio lata est, populus ei et in eum, omne im- 
perium suum et potestatem concedat. duodcunque ergo 
imperator per epistolam constituit, vel cognoscens decrevit ; 
vel edicto prascepit legem esse constat."* But the people 
have no more the mherent ^and ttnderived authority to enact 
laws to bind the subject, than has the King, or the Emperor. 
The million is no more my mvaster^ than the one. When 
the civil power comes to me with its commands, I ask ; By 
what authority doest thou these things 7 And icho gave thee 
this authority ? '• The social compact," it is commonly an- 
swered among us. " The social compact" ! — Compact is no ulti- 
mate source of authority. So is the doctrine laid down by that 
great oracle of the principles of jurisprudence, the baron Puf- 
fendorf " Neither are they accurate enough in their expres- 
sions," says he, ^* who frequently apply to the la.ws the appel- 
lation of common agreements. The points of distinction be- 
tween a compact or covenant^ and a laio are obvious. For a 
compact is a promise^ but a law is a comm^and. In a com- 
pact, the manner of speaking is, IidiU do so: but in a law, the 
form is. Do thou so, after an imperative manner."t Again, "It 
is a maxim that a man cannot bind himself." And again, 
" For a person to oblige himself under the notion of a lawgiver 
is impossible."t " For all jurisdiction implies superiority of 
power." § Beside, on this theory of compact, what of a minor- 
ity dissenting from a constitution of government established 
by a majority? Whose authority binds them? The authority, 
original, inherent, underived of the majority ? What ! — man, 
— a creature like myself, — have an original, underived and 
absolute power to bind my rational and immortal spirit by his 

* Institutes, B, 1. Sec. I, T. 1. 

t Puffendorf Comm. B. I, Ch. 6, Sec. 1. 

t Puffendorf. § Blackstone. 



19 

rnere will ? — I had rather perish than acknowledge such a 
dominion over me, by any creature, or creatures — one, or many, 
— prince or people ; — by any being but the God Avho created 
me ! I own no such power. The medium by which author- 
ity comes down from heaven to the subject compact may be. 
This^ when in accordance with the moral law of God, which is 
the fundamental law of the State, I acknowledge that compact 
is. But the ultimate source of authority it is not, and can- 
not be. 

Far better, than by the Justinian Institutes, compiled 
amid the ruins of liberty in fallen Rome, or in the noisy 
babblings of a superficial multitude in later times, was the 
truth laid down, amid the free institutions of Greece, by 
the prince of orators. "The laws determine what is just, 
honorable, expedient : this the^r inquire after ; and when it is 
discovered, it is proclaimed as an ordinance equal and alike to 
all. And this is law, which it is obligatory upon all to obey 
on many accounts, but above all^ because all law is the inven- 
tion and gift of Heaven^ — ol ds vo^oi to Scxaiov xao to xaxov 

xac T'o avix^spov povXovtac^ xai tiS'to ^T^Tfaail xav BTisiSav svps^r], xoivov 
'tH'to TipoG'ta/yfia artsSsix^V ^'^^^^ l6ov xao ofxoiov* Kat 'tat sSTfo vofxoc, 9 
Ttai'-T'aj rCpoar^xso rCsi^tG^ai 6ta rioT^Tia, xac {xsycG^ or't rtaj ss'to vofio^ svpr^fia 

fisv xat 8opov ^scov:^ hi cousouauce with this view of the subject 
is the sentiment of the great minds of antiquity. Even Aristotle, 
little as commonly God was in all his thoughts, places civil 
obligation upon ethical grounds, and makes it a principal 

part of virtue. 'Ev 6s dixat^oawr^ 6v7i%7^}58r^v Ttai apSTfTj 'cjT't, xao 
'tsXscok iJ,a%i6Tfa (xps'tri' ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 'ts'ksia 6' B6tiv, oVt 6 sx<^v avtTjv xav rtpoj 
iTfspov ^ijj^aT'at' 'trj apst'ij ;^pfc»^at* Kat- 5ca Tfsifo ev^oxsl sx^iv t'o t'» Btavi'oj, 
oTfc o^px^ '^0^ avSpa Ss^so' Tipog ET'spov yap xao sv xoopovca <y]d7j o ap;^cov* 
Aca 6s to avto tato xac aT^^otpLov aya^ov 6oxso Sivao r^ 6ixaio6vvri jxovtj 
t(ov apstcov, otv Tipo^ stspov satcv, a'K'kci yap ta Gv/x^spovta Ttpattsc, yj 

apxovth ^ xoiv<i>'X Plato, in accordance with his more religious 
spirit, makes his interlocutors, at the opening of ,the De 
Legibus, agree in distinctly ascribing to laws a Divine origin. 

©£0j, rj ti^ T'wv av^pcoTtcoj/ vy,iv, to ffi/oc, siXr^s trjv acT'tav tTjs '^<^v voixiov 
6La^s(5E(^^; inquires one. ©soj, u> ^svs,^0so^, (Z^ys to Bvxavotatov siTtsiv*^ 

* Demosthenes, Orat. 1 con. Aristog. 
t Arist. Ethie. Nicomach. L. v. ch. I. 



20 

-^ yap; replies another. Naf' assents the first.* So, as the lawyers 
commonly say, that the law is right reason, the great Roman 
orator and philosopher rises to a noble elevation, that might 
well put to shame the grovelling conceptions of many in 
Christian lands, and calls it the right reason of Jove ; and 
ascribes to it on this account its power to command obedience. 
Lex vera atque pi^inceps^ apta adjuhendiim^ et ad vetandum^ 
ratio est recta Jovis^ So also the expositors of the law in 
modern times lay down the doctrine. "This law of nature," 
says Blackstone, ^^ being dictated by God himself is of 
course superior in obligation to any other. No human laws 
are of any validity, if contrary to this : and such as are valid 
derive all their force and all their authority mediately or 
immediately from this original." Even positive laws, as 
they have been called in distinction from those more neces- 
sarily of obligation, rest ultimately upon the same ground of 
Divine authority. For, as Christian, the annotator on Black- 
stone, well remarks; "As the chief design of established govern- 
ments is the prevention of crimes and the enforcement of the 
moral duties of man, obedience to that government becomes 
one of the highest of moral obligations : and the principle of 
moral and positive laws being precisely the same, they become 
so blended, that the discrimination between them is often 
impracticable: or, as the author of Hhe Doctor and student' has 
expressed it with beautiful simplicity; ^In every law-positive 
well made is somewhat of the law of reason, and of God ; and 
to discern the law of God and reason from the law-positive is 
very hard.' " t This is the ground upon which the whole subject 
is placed by higher authority than that of the Greek and 
Roman orators and philosophers, or of the English lawyers. 
Submit yourselves to every ordinance ofTnan for the Lord's 
SAKE, whether it be itD the King as Supreine, or unto 
governors, as unto them that are sent by him : for so is the 
WILL OF God. This is authoritative ; and it is decisive. It 
places civil power upon a foundation that commands my respect. 
It grounds the obligation of civil obedience upon a reason that 



Plato De Lcgg. Lib. I. t Cicero De Legg. I, 5. f 1 Comm. 59, note. 



21 

binds my conscience. I now gladly acknowledge it to be my 
duty to honor the State ; for I behold in it the ordinance of 
heaven. I feel deeply upon my moral nature the obligation to 
regard its behests ; for I recognize these behests as vivified by 
the mandate of God. I yield to its laws a willing obedience; 
for I see these laws to flo\v from a greater law, that comes down 
from the throne of the Majesty in the Heavens. I bow myself 
before it ; I reverence it ; I rejoice in my subjection to it ; for I feel 
this subjection to be good, and that it is one of the chief distinc- 
tions of my moral nature, that I am capable of such subjection 
to just authority — an authority, which, though vested in my 
fellow-men, is derived from, and is meted and bounded by 
the appointment of God. This puts the subject on a foundation 
that exempts from all feeling of degradation in subjection to civil 
authority; conduces to liberty without lawlessness ; and secures 
civil obedience, by placing obligation to it upon the strongest 
of all grounds. 

I have spoken of the connexion between Religion and the 
very constitution of the State and the ground of civil obligation. 
I might go on to speak of the connexion between Religion and 
the highest ends of the State. According to the notions that 
perhaps generally prevail, the end of civil society and its gover- 
mental institutions is an end purely secular, and this even not 
the highest of that class of ends. Its object, as it is supposed, 
is to prevent men from the invasion of each others persons and 
estates; and, after that, according to the various theories of 
different political schools, more or less to regulate, direct and 
promote the industrial pursuits and interests of the members of 
the community. Nothing can be more unworthy the dignity 
of the subject, or more untrue, than these low conceptions of 
the object of civil institutions. The highest end of the State 
and of its whole order is a moral end — that is a religious end. 
It is that, by a scrupulous respect in all its own legislation and 
administration at home, and in all its relations and intercourse 
with other nations abroad, to right ; by the equitable and vindi- 
catory punishment of crime, and the establishment of justice, it 
may inspire and cherish in its citizens the love of righteousness. 
It is thus a great moral institution, of high dignity and of mighty 



22 

power, whose highest end is the development of man's moral 
nature and the forming of him to virtue in this respect, and 
ultimately in all the glory of God, whose ordinance it is: 

One other only, among the many interesting views of the 
subject, I can hastily mention; — the influence of Religion in 
the political elevation and regeneration of the masses who com- 
pose the State. One short sentence of Adam Smith describes, 
not more graphically than truly and mournfully, the regard 
which has generally been had in political afiairs to the people. 
" Man is generally considered by statesmen, as the materials of 
a sort of political mechanics." Christianity has taught other 
views of man. Revealing God's respect to man, in his redemp- 
tion of him by the blood of his Son, it has taught men to 
respect man as Qnan wherever and however he is found. It 
has taught them that the immediate end of governments is the 
good of the governed ; and has given and is giving to civil 
society throughout the world a new organization, and breathing 
into it the inspiration of a new life. 

Between the kindred science of Political Economy and the 
spirit and precepts of true Religion, there exists an equally 
intimate connexion. Let any one call up to his mind the great 
principles that lie at the foundation of the received doctrines of 
the science. What are they? And what is the still higher 
principle, into which all these great principles resolve themselves? 
What but that there is over the world the government of an 
omniscient and all-wise, as well as all-powerful God, whose 
providence extends to every part of that complex constitution 
of human affairs which he has established, and who, as in other 
cases so in this, has ordained natural laws, which, when left 
undisturbed by the impertinent interference of man, to their own 
legitimate operation, work out the best possible results. Were 
the public mind of a people deeply penetrated and thoroughly 
pervaded by this great truth of Natural Religion, how mighty 
would be its effects upon their wealth and economical prosperity! 

If we descend to particular doctrines of Political Economy, 
the relations between these and the principles of true Religion 
are most intimate and influential. Take the great doctrine of 
free trade. As illustrative of the connexion between Religion 



23 

and Science, it is a fact not less significant than curious, men- 
tioned, I think, by Mr. Dugald Stewart, that long before the 
speculations of Adam Smith and the French Economists, and 
against the whole weight of authority of the mere politicians 
of their day in both countries, two ministers of the Gospel, 
Fenelon, Archbishop of Cambray, in France, and Dean Tucker, 
in England, advocated a free trade as a measure expedient in 
policy, by an a priori argument drawn from the inseparable con- 
nexion which both were deer^ly persuaded, must, under the moral 
government of God, exist between the rectitude and universal 
benevolence which Christianity enjoins, and the true economical 
prosperity of nations. So manifest and powerful is the influ- 
ence of this eminently Christian policy upon national wealth, 
that the doctrine, first brought out in the clear and distinct form 
of a demonstrable truth of science, sixty-nine years ago by 
Adam Smith, seems at the present moment to be breaking its 
way into the very citadel of the restrictive system, the cabinet of 
Sir Robert Peel. On the other hand, its influence on the moral 
and religious interests of the world is as extensive and powerful 
as it is obvious. The immense increase of wealth and multi- 
plication of the means of physical enjoyment consequent upon- 
it, are among the very least of its advantages. Where it prevails, 
wars cease, peace reigns, good-will among men obtains, inter- 
course extends, and knowledge is increased. It gives to the 
minds of men the enlargement of views, the wider scope of 
thought, the increased expansion to human sympathies, which 
are essential to the highest moral elevation of man ; and, as a 
powerful auxiliary, helps forward the progress of learning, 
civilization and Christianity. 

Take another example. Religion condemns the moral degra- 
dation of a human being, which divests him of the character of 
a moral person, and reduces him to "be taken and held as, to all 
intents and purposes, goods and chattels:" and Political Econ- 
omy teaches that the labor of slaves, in point of mere expensive- 
ness^ is in comparison with that of freemen, ruinous. For, 
whether respect be had to the moral or the economical value of 
man, Scio's old bard did not half express the truth when he sang ; 
'^ The day that makes a man a slave takes half his worth away.'' 

HjttKjv yap t apri'tr^s o^rCoa.ivvv'tcx^ hii%iov TjfA^ap* 



24 

A system which, — whatever the moral estimate which truth 
and justice require us to form, (and doubtless, this is in many 
cases a hiofh one,) of those who are involuntarily involved in it, 
and whatever the difficulties that encompass the evil, or the pa- 
tience, and prudence required in its extirpation^ (and these doubt- 
less are great,) — no jumblino- of ideas that are distinct can cause 
even the most simple to mistake for something else which it is 
not ; no wresting of the Scriptures can force them to sustain ; no 
sophistry can persuade the moral sense of a Christian people to 
believe to be right ; no decrees, from whatever source they may 
proceed, can sanctify, and no edicts, however procured, can 
prevent a free people from speaking of as it becomes a free peo- 
ple to speak ; — this system, wherever it has scope to work out its 
own natural and legitimate effects, draws after it the penalty of 
the violation of the laws of nature's God, in moral, social and 
political deterioration, and in individual and national impover- 
ishment and decay. 

Other examples could easily be multiplied. The relations, 
indeed, between the principles of true religion and all the 
great leading doctrines of Political Economy, are most numer- 
ous and intimate, giving illustration and confirmation to the 
very sound economical maxim, that Godliness is profitable 
unto all things^ having promise of the life that now is, and 
of that which is to come. 

" History ^^'' it has been said, " is Philosophy teaching by ex- 
ample, " But what is the instruction which it imparts ? 
Wars, revolutions, the successions of dynasties, the rise and 
fall of kingdoms and empires — these have constituted the sta- 
ple of history. Especially has it been knowledge well 
drenched in blood, that has been chiefly sought and given ; 
and he has been conceived to fulfil the office of a historian 
who narrates these, — 

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ j.gg ggg[j^g * j^ ^ * ^ scribere, 
Bella qui et paces longum diffundit in sevum. 

But what is the scope of all these things ? What is the 
conclusion of the whole matter? A few of the better historians 
and philosophers, the ancient occasionally, the modern more 



25 

commonlyj talk of development of progress, of improvement 
in the condition of man, and even kindle into the glow of en- 
thusiasm in view of what they conceive to be the perfectibil- 
ity of human nature, and of the means by which thisa nimat- 
ing idea is to be realized. 

Willingly, joyfully do we own that there is development ; — 
there is progress ;— there is improvement. The present civil- 
ization of Christendom is as superior to^ as it is widely differ- 
ent, from any the world has before seen. And freely do we 
own our sympathy with the high hopes, that look to the carry- 
ing of human society to an elevation, which it has never be- 
fore reached, and to the measure of which no definite limits 
can be assigned. But still the question returns upon and pres- 
ses us. — What is the end of all this development, progress, 
improvement ? Whither do they tend ? What is their scope, 
their aim, their object, their ultimate issue ? 

The great German historian, Von MuUer, prosecuting his 
studies at Cassel, read all the ancient historians in the order 
of time in which they wrote, passing over no remarkable 
event without recording it. His object was to form a just 
idea of the condition of all nations down to the end of the 
old world, in the downfall of the Roman Empire. One day 
toward the close of this course of study, it somehow occurred 
to him to look at the New Testament, as a historical docu- 
ment of the period he was studying. He had not opened the 
book for many years, and now began the reading of it with 
prejudice ; for his mind w&,s infected with|that form of infi- 
delity, called rationalism^ which unhappily so much prevails 
in Germany. As he read, a light burst in upon his mind, which 
he himself compares to that which burst upon Saul of Tar- 
sus on his way to Damascus. " In the revelations of these 
Divine Oracles," says he, " I suddenly discovered the fulfil- 
ment of all hopes, the point of perfection of all philosophy, 
the interpreter of all revolutions, the key to all the seeming 
contradictions of the physical and moral world :— it is life :— 
it is immortality. In reflecting on all that took place before 
this era, I have always found that something was wanting. 



26 

Since I have known the Saviour, every thing is clear. With 
him there is nothing which I cannot solve." — Then it was 
that this distingushed man projected a great historical work to 
embrace all the revolutions of the political world, and designed 
to show the relations of each, to the rise and progress of the 
doctrine of immortality, — ^the doctrine of Christianity. 

Here is the key to the interpretation of universal history. 
In the days of the great kings of the earth, the God of heaven 
set up in the world a new kingdom, heavenly in its origin, 
spiritual in its nature, established in righteousness as its prin- 
ciple, animated by love as its life, armed with weapons, not 
carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong 
holds, and the object of which is the reclaiming of the world 
to its allegiance to God. This great design, coming forth from 
the bosom of eternity, revealing itself upon earth immediately 
on the fall of man, carried forward in the events of the great 
scheme of Redemption, unfolds itself in its full development, 
and the manifestation of its remote and ultimate results only 
in eternity. This world is the scene of one or two acts in this 
great drama. Through a period of four thousand years a 
work of preparation was carried on. Then the Son of God 
from heaven appeared, — the Captain of salvation. He offered 
himself an atoning sacrifice for sin to obtain redemption. 
This is the great event of that scheme. Toward it all the 
lines of the ancient promises, prophecies, types, and providen- 
tial administrations of the Divine government involving the 
history of the nations of the old world, converge. From this 
great event again unrol the mighty events that have involved 
and that shall involve to the end of time the destinies of the 
world. We are in the midst of this development. Nay ; I 
know not whether in the midst, or only at its commencement. 
The sheme moves slowly, as befits a scheme of such magni- 
tude, and such results. Such a drama takes time for its enact- 
ment ; — for the full unfolding of its parts, the illustration 
and confirmation of the principles upon which it proceeds, and 
the manifestation of its ends. God is not in haste. One day 
is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years 
as one day. This is the key to history. It is in reference to 



27 

^this Kingdom of God, that empires have arisen and fallen, 
and that the great current of human events, that make up the 
history of the world, moves. In reference to this, these things 
are to be contemplated. Else history is an enigma absolutely 
unintelligible. It conducts us through the devious paths of a 
labyrinth, that lead no whither, and end no where. History, 
even when read in the light thus afforded, presents many par- 
ticular questions, which we are unable to solve. But it is of 
great use that it furnishes to us the key to the grand leading 
principle involved in the great problem of the world's design 
and destiny, and though it may not give the means of unrav- 
elling all subordinate questions, enables us to understand the 
general methods of its solution. This it does. 

This it does. In the midst of the development, the progress, 
the improvement, physical, political, scientific, social, and mo- 
ral, going on in the world, there is carrying forward by means 
of all these, another and far mightier development, a progress 
vastly more magnificient, and an improvement immensely 
more grand and important in its results. These are but the 
under-parts in the great drama enacting on the theatre of earth 
and heaven, the means by which is carrried forward to its con- 
summation, the grand scheme which is to issue in the universal 
establishment of the reign of God, over a redeemed and regen- 
erated world. 

Mental Philosophy ; — Need I pause upon this ? How de- 
fective, how utterly inadequate the psycology that takes no cog- 
nizance of the religious nature of man ! How intimate the 
ralations between a sound psycology and many of the vital 
questions of the Christian Theology, of Ethics, and of the whole 
doctrine of Christian experience ! 

Natural Philosophy ; — I will be still and let a great master 
in this school speak. " The main business of natural philoso- 
phy," says Sir Isaac Newton, "is to argue from phenomena 
without feigning hypothesis, and to deduce causes from effects, 
till we come to the very first cause^ which certainly is not me- 
chanical ; and, not only to unfold the mechanism of the world, 
but chiefly to resolve these and such like questions : — Whence 
is it that Nature does nothing in vain? — and whence arise all 



28 

that order and beauty which we see in the world?— How came 
the bodies of animals to be contrived with so much art, and for 
what ends were their several parts ? — Was the eye contrived 
without skill in optics, and the ear without knowledge of 
sounds ? " 

I might proceed to other departments of learning. Astron- 
omy, Geology, Physiology, — every department of physical 
science ; — the wide field of Oriental Literature, Archaeology, 
Philology, the comparative study of languages,-— the whole 
range of Ethnography ; — the Natural History of the Human 
race — have all been laid, and are susceptible of being still further 
laid under contribution, to fortify the evidences, or to illustrate 
the doctrines of Religion. But 1 have designed, not a full dis- 
cussion of the relations between general science and Religion, 
but only enough to make clear my general idea of the character 
in this respect of that science, which must be the instrument of 
education, if education is to be a true one ; and I must bring 
these remarks to a close. 

But what then ? Are we to go back to the manner of " the 
schoolmen," among whom theology swallowed up all other 
science, and religious teachings engrossed the time and labors of 
the schools, to the exclusion of other learning ? Are all our pro- 
fessors to turn preachers, and all our academical lectures to be 
sermons ? Assenting to no unjust and flippant disparagement 
of the "schoolmen," I answer, iVb^ <7^ alL I acknowledge 
that God has established the churchy as specially the school for 
the instruction of men in religion, and that he has appointed a 
ministry, set apart, and ordained to this very thing, to whom it 
has pleased him to commit the formal public teaching of relig- 
ion. Let God's institutions be sacredly respected. But it is the 
duty of every teacher to go the bottom of his own subject. A 
teacher has not done this in any department of learning, till he 
has led those intrusted to his instruction to the confines of his 
science, and at least pointed out its connexions with the great 
terminating science of Religion, and indicated the moral and 
religious questions, such as those suggested by Newton, to 
which it gives rise. Good sense will indicate to the professors in 
the different fields of learning the just and proper limits of their 



29 

respective departments of instruction : but, it remains true that 
the relations between all the departments of learning and relig- 
ion are relations most intimate and essential ; and that the ulti- 
mate end of all is a religious end. 

Let us not be misunderstood. It is no circum.scribing of sci- 
ence within a narrow range, that we demand : it is no hedging 
about of the student by the boundaries of a limited field, that 
we plead for : it is no contracted views, that we wish to see 
guiding, no illiberate spirit animating his inquiries. True Re- 
ligion is of an ingenuous and free spirit. She infuses this 
spirit into all things else that come under her control. Like the 
Seraphim before the throne of God, while with twain of her 
wings she flies, with other twain, as in his presence, she covers 
her face, and with other twain her feet. She demands of all 
this reverence of God, of all, this consecration to God. But, 
this secured, herself conscious of her own high birth, sure of 
her own strength, and fearing njthing, she animates Science, 
with a free wing and an eagle eye, to sweep earth and heaven, 
exploring all things, searching all things ; but claiming, indeed, 
that she bring all her acquisitions back, as an offering for the 
service of God, the Creator and Lord of all. Clear-sighted, 
and far-sighted, she takes within the scope of her vision, all 
things that either from the book of Revelation, or the book of 
nature may be known. She forms her conception of humanity 
from no one point of view. She recognizes and takes in 
all the various elements of humanity, — its races, its languages, 
its sciences, its arts, its industry, its forms of government, its 
laws, its institutions, its manners — every thing. She omits 
nothing. To all these, within their respective spheres, she gives 
the freest scope, encourages all, stimulates all, promotes all ; 
— ^but claims to stand at the head of, and to preside over all. 

Such must be the science, that shall be the instrument of a 
true education. Nor is it enough to answer the demands of a 
sound and adequate system^of education, that there be occa- 
sional religious services, designed to be devotional in their 
character, but devoid of instruction. It will be in the result 
of little avail, that Religion and|learning should lie, two con- 
terminous but unconnected provinces, side by side, the domain 



30 

of different princes, strangers, if not enemies to each other, the 
subjects of which, respectively, may make occasional and irreg- 
ular incursions into each other's territory, but those of neither 
establishing in that of the other, a residence, or taking out 
letters of naturalization. Religion cannot be infused into men, 
as heat is chemically infused into inorganic masses. There 
must be an organism by which the warmth of spiritual life, as 
well as natural, may exist, and be diffused through the living 
man. Religious worship is a rational exercise, only on the 
condition, that the institutions and ordinances of worship ex- 
hibit to the mind of the worshipper, and body forth in these as 
their appropriate expression, the great doctrinal truths of re- 
ligion. This requires instruction. Without this, worship, 
if it can exist at all, must be like that of the Athenians, before 
the altar on which was the inscription, To the Uiiknown God. 
It is no worship. Or it is the wondering stare of ignorance 
upon mysteries and upon the priest^ who is supposed, standing 
between men and God, to have power to enter within the vail, 
that hides these mysteries from all but sacerdotal eyes. You 
substitute reverence of the priest for reverence of God ; the 
worship of the priest for the worship of God. Or else, (which 
is in our own times and country ^erAop^ the more likely altern- 
ative,) you leave the youth of your land to go to absolute irre- 
ligion. " Worship,^^ says Cousin, in his Report on the Prussian 
system of education, " Worships ivith its ceremonies can never 
be sufficient for young' men who reflect^ and who are imbued 
with the spirit of the times. A true religious instruction, 
is indispensible,^^ This is the common sense of a shrewd and 
reflecting observer, who perhaps counts himself no more than 
a man of the world, and a master in the school of a worldly 
philosophy. There must be exhibited to the mind of the stu- 
dent, in clear and comprehensive delineation, the great leading 
principles of religion, and be indicated the relations, connex- 
ions, articulations, dispositions, and adjustments of these princi- 
ples with all the various branches of universal knowledge. It 
is only thus that Religion can be made to maintain its own 
proper position in reference to general science, to incorporate 
itself with, and to become the governing power in the whole 



31 

body of learning, controlling it to the service of God, and making 
it the instrument of a true and faithful education. 

But is such a religious instruction, amid the diversity of reli- 
gious opinion, existing in our land, practicable in a college ; — 
and especially in a college established by the authority of the 
State, and which, as a State institution, is common to all the cit- 
izens of the State ? — Well,''i/* it be 7iot^ then is academical 
education by a State-college impracticable ; — that is all. 
For a Christian community will not sustain any educational 
institution, from which an unambiguous, distinct, and decided 
religious teaching and influence are excluded ; and, if there be 
others that would do so, such an institution carries within itself 
the sure and unfailing causes of its own speedy dissolution. 
Christianity is not an exotic upon our soil, nor a power alien to 
our constitutions, our laws, and our institutions. It is the re- 
corded opinion of not a few of our most distinguished states- 
men and lawyers, that, through'the common law of England, 
Christianity is part and parcel of the law of our land. Par- 
sons, Story, Webster, and Chief Justice Spencer, of New York, 
stand high in the ranks of juridicial authority. Such is the un- 
hesitating and strongly expressed opinion of these eminent and 
learned men. Even were this not formally so, yet is it true, 
that Christianity so under-lies the whole constitution, and pen- 
etrates the whole frame of society in our country; so forms our 
civilization ; so lies at the foundation of our literature ; so en- 
ters into all our habits of thought, of feeling, of acting ; so 
constitutes our very life, as a people, that even were the at- 
tempt made, to exclude it from our systems of education, the 
experiment would simply be found to be impossible. How to 
introduce it wisely, rightly, successfully, is the problem. 

I will not allow myself to doubt that, considering how much 
is the common ground occupied by the different Christian de- 
nominations, in comparison with that of their differences^ it 
will be found practicable to unite the different sections of the 
Christian community in a cordial approbation and support of a 
course of instruction ; characterized on the one hand, by a dis- 
tinct and earnest inculcation of the great principles of true 
religion, under a deep sense of their vital necessity to a sound 



32 

system of education, and to all those paramount interests of 
man which every such system seeks ; and, on the other, by an 
administration of this system in such a catholic spirit as all the 
proprieties of the case demand. I wish, upon this subject, to 
be understood, so far as my position in this institution may 
make this to any, a matter of interest. I have read, in the Me- 
moirs of Mr. Martinus Scriblerus, a learned discussion on 
universals, "Martin supposed an universal man to be like 
a knight of a shire, or a burgess of a corporation, that repre- 
sented a great many individuals. His father asked him, if he 
could not frame an idea of a universal Lord Mayor 7 Martin 
told him that, never having seen but one lord mayor, the idea 
of that lord mayor always returned to his mind ; that he had 
great difficulty to abstract a lord mayor from his fur-gown, and 
gold chain ; nay, that the horse he saw the lord mayor ride 
upon, not a little disturbed his imagination. On the other 
hand, Crambe, to show himself of a more penetrating genius, 
swore that he could frame a conception .of a lord mayor, not 
only w^ithouthis horse, gown, and gold chain; but even without 
stature, feature, colour, hands, head, feet, or any body; — which 
he supposed was the abstract of a lord mayor.""*^ I cannot 
promise you, gentlemen of the Trusteeship and fellow-citizens, 
in my humble self, a University President, like Crambe's ab- 
stract universal lord mayor. God gave me my birth as a Pres- 
byterian ; and I am not ashamed of my ecclesiastical lineage. 
Without any invidious disparagement of other families of the 
great Christian commonwealth, I reckon the Presbyterian to 
be some of the best blood in Christendom. At any rate, the 
fact that I am born such, is in the predicable of inseperable 
accidents. I can't help it* As I was born, so I expect to live 
and to die, a Presbyterian ;— unless God should in mercy, be- 
fore that event come to me, hasten the day, earnestly hoped 
for by all the good, when the watchmen upon the walls of 
Zion shall see eye to eye, and together lift up the voice ; and 
when, as there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God 

* Pope's Work«, vol. IV. 



33 

and Father of all, who is overall, and through all, and in all, 
so there shall be visibly, as there is spiritually, but one body ; 
and all these party names shall be sunk in the one catholic and 
glorious name, The church of the living God^ the ground and 
pillar of the truth. Meantime, I would appeal to all the best 
periods in the history of that great division of the church in 
which my lot has been cast, w^iether in our own land or else- 
where; the periods ofreformation, of the revival of true religion, 
of the development in power and with efficacy of her faith, of 
her own enlargement, — for the fact, that, in a degree not infe- 
rior to that of any other denomination, she has united an in- 
telligent attachment to and zeal for the truth of God, with a 
truly catholic spirit toward other departments of the house- 
hold of faith ; and, if I may [assume that I have partaken 
aught of the spirit of the church of my fathers and of my own 
choice, then would I for your present satisfaction offer this to 
your consideration ; and, disliking protestations and pledges in 
advance, would prefer that after some time shall have passed, 
you will then judge, whether it be practicable so to conduct 
an educational institution, as to unite the general suffrages of 
good and Christian men. 

In claiming this relative place for religion in academical ed- 
ucation, I am not advocating innovation, I do but propose to 
act upon principles already established and recognized. I have 
already referred to the great primordial law of the land, the 
Ordinance of 1787. That Ordinance places in the fore-ground 
of those things held to be necessary to good government, and 
the immediate end thereof, the happiness of the people. Reli- 
gion ; and requires that for the promotion of this, among other 
objects, schools and means of education, shall be provided. A 
declaration of this great principle was embodied in the consti- 
tution of the commonwealth, at its organization as a State. 
In conformity to this fundamental law of the State, the Act to 
create the University, declares the objects for which it is es- 
tablished to be " the instruction of youth in all the branches of 
the liberal sciences and arts, the promotion of good education, 
and of virtue, religion, and morality." The object is well 
5 



34 

stated. It is " the instruction of youth in all the branches of 
the liberal sciences and arts." The range of instruction, 
therefore, is to be, not narrow, but liberal, comprehending, so far 
as may be, the whole circle of learning. This instruction is to 
be used as the instrument of " good education,'' — the develop- 
ment and formation of the youth who are its subjects. That 
to which they are to be thus formed, is "Virtue/^ — that is, 
conformity to the relations in which they stand to God and 
their fellow-men, and to the obligations growing out of these 
relations. The nature of these relations and obligations are 
pointed out, and the means of fulfilling the duties, indicated by 
the terms " Religion and Morality ^^'' — " Religiori^^ being Mo- 
rality^ in principle, " Morality ^^"^ Religion in practice. 

In declaring these principles, as those which ought to di- 
rect the administration of a University, established by the 
authority of a Christian State, I feel well assured, that in the 
principles themselves, if not in the precise form of stating 
them, I shall have the concurrence, and in carrying them out 
in the conducting of this institution, the approbation and sup- 
port of this enlightened Board of Trust, of the public authori- 
ties of the State, and of the people of this Christian Common- 
wealth. When education shall be generally conducted on 
these principles, then shall Religion flourish with knowledge, 
and the kingdom of heaven shall obtain among men that uni- 
versal dominion which the prophetic daughter of Priam is said 
to have predicted for the empire to be founded by the exiled 
colonists from ruined Troy, on the far distant shores of Italy, — 

Tri^ xai ^a%%a67j^ axsTiifpa xac fi.ovapxt^OLV 
Aaj5ovt£s*^ 

The kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of 
Jehovah ; and once more the earth shall be glad, for God shall 
reign. 

We have a noble theatre on which to act our part, in carry- 
ing forward this great work of Christian education, — a great 
Commonwealth, inhabited by a free people, under free and 

* Lycophron. 



35 

Christian institutions ; of extensive domain, genial climate, 
fertile soil, and ample natural resources; stretching, upon one 
side, along one of that chain of great inland seas, destined to 
become the Mediterranean of the Western continent, by which 
it may communicate with all the North, and, through the At- 
lantic States and the St. Lawrence, with the old world; and, 
on the other side, by our great navigable rivers, may extend 
its commerce and its intercourse, to all this immense valley, 
to South America and to the isles of the Sea, — a Common- 
wealth, which, not yet forty-three years old, is, in all the ele- 
ments of a great State, only the second in rank in this great 
confederacy of States. 

Our position requires that we comprehend our duty in re - 
spect to this institution. Recognizing and fully acknowledging 
all that has been accomplished by our respected predecessors, 
with so much of honor to themselves, and of advantage to the 
public, it yet is evident, that such an institution as might be 
sufficient twenty, or even ten years ago, will not answer the 
demands of the present time ; and what may do now, will not 
satisfy the expectations of twenty, or of ten years hence. 
Least of all will it do here, where every period of ten years is 
equal to half a centmy, or a century almost any where else, 
for an institution such as this to be stationary. Such we are 
entitled to infer Vv^ere the views of its founders. They proposed 
the establishment of a University, for instruction in all the 
branches of the liberal sciences and arts^ and they executed 
such part of the plan as seemed to them to be called for in the 
then incipient condition of a new country. Ohio, as chronology 
is reckoned among us, is no longer a new State. The hunting 
grounds of the Miamis are become verdant pastures clothed 
with flocks, and valleys covered over with corn; and where 
within the memory of living men the sparsely scattered and 
rude tribes of the forest dwelt, has risen up a great civilized 
and christian commonwealth of near two millions of souls. I 
respectfully submit to you, whether the time has not come for 
us to proceed to carry out the original design, to make the 
University such in fact^ as well as in name. The sugges- 
tion of such measures as have occurred to me, as being of first 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

35 - lllillllllltllllllllllllllllllllllillllliii^ » 



necessity, with a view to this end, will be r Q Q2o 308 Ufci ^ 

a communication to you at another time ana in another form. 
All that I wish to say here is, to express my own concm-rence 
in what I cannot doubt is your mind; — that it behooves us, act- 
ing in the generous spirit, and with the enlarged views and lib- 
eral policy, which an enlightened community expects at our 
hands, to go forward with a well directed energy, to increase 
its means, to extend its aims, and to make it in all respects such 
an institution, as is demanded by our wants, and as shall be 
worthy of the great Commonwealth, by whose authority it is 
established. 

I desire in entering upon the place to which you, gentle- 
men of the Board, have been pleased to call me, to approach 
to the discharge of its duties, under a deep sense of the truth, 
that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that 
build; and, feeling deeply and unfeignedly my own insuffi- 
ciency to their adequate discharge, to look up for wisdom and 
strength to the Father of lights, under the assurance, — an assu- 
rance which fails not the less harmoniously on the ear, and 
brings not the less of confidence to the heart, because it 
flo^vs from the pen of an inspired apostle: — 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



028 308 027 4 4 



HoUinger Corp. 



_i_j ft ^ 



